Here are some pictures from Hilary's baby shower at our house. I know she's pregnant but she really doesn't look it yet. This is a picture of Josh's grandma, his aunt, and me. I served with Josh's grandma in New York. She and her husband served in Batavia and I ended my mission there. Convienent.
Just think this picture is funny. Hilary still looks great.

I recieved my scores for the Millers Analogies Test this week. My scaled score was 440. I scored in the 84 percentile for my intended major and I scored in the 94 percentile for my total group. I still don't really know what it means exactly but I do know the following things:

• My scores don't suck.
• I am going to Utah State in January, they have a spot for me and everything.
• According to wikipedia (that bastian of knowledge) to join Mensa you need to score in the 95 percentile. I'm not really convinced. It did give me something to laugh about for a little bit.

One last thing:

Jordan is going to be home next Saturday. It's crazy!

Baby Shower!

My mom and my aunts threw a baby shower for my sister before she moves to Vegas. I played a minimal role and made fondant flowers for one of the desserts. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. And they are all gone. As in eaten.
I think it went well. I'll publish pictures when I get some from Hilary. Maybe she took a picture of the pieces of cake. Next up in the culinary crusade: a soccer ball cake.

I'm going to try to make it spherical--wish me luck.

Parenthood

I just returned from babysitting my friend's kids for the weekend. Granted, this was a little more complicated because I stayed at their house from early Friday morning until late Monday evening. Their poor daughter was really surprised when she woke up and there was no Mommy, just Lindsay. That would be a really awful surprise for a two year old. It was an awful surprise for the two year old. The four year old was better about it, he remembered that his parents were going on a trip. During the past few days I have learned some valuable lessons:

1. Lids of sippy cups should be screwed on correctly before placing in a non-waterproof bag. If you have any questions about proper procedure, ask the four year old, he's smarter in sippy cup know-how than you.
2. No matter how many times you tell a two year old that your name isn't Mom, she'll probably just keep calling you Mom out of habit. It's easier to say than Lindsay.
3. Cutting up carrot sticks into circle shapes and calling them "coins" really does make them more fun to eat.
4. If you are with two kids, make sure you have two of everything, preferably identical. (Sticker books are a hot item. Prepare for war if you only have one.)
5. If you have only packed two granola bars and a small bag of carrot sticks for sacrament meeting treats, you are so screwed. You should have packed MORE!

It was an interesting experience because it gave me a small feeling of what it would be like to be a single, working mom. I watched the kids in the mornings and the nights while I worked at the bank in the afternoons and evenings. It was only after I realized how hard it was on them to have so many different sitters that I relaxed and had fun. They were really cute and incredibly smart. I think they get it from their mother. ;)

Tagged huh?

I've been instructed to post 5 Random or Embarrassing things about me by my lovely friend since childhood, Mechelle. Hopefully it will be entertaining and not too embarrassing (for anyone.)

1. I really like the movie "What A Girl Wants." Whenever it is on TV I will watch it. Granted, it totally goes against what I usually like in a movie but I really like it. For some odd, inexplicable reason.

2. I have two punk crushes. They are conditional crushes on Billy Idol (left) and Paul Simonon from the Clash (right).

I only really have a crush on Billy Idol from 1980-1986. Although I guess it could last until he went all weird and went through that weird dreadlock phase. The Paul Simonon crush ends when he opens his mouth. His teeth are pretty bad and he's hard to understand. He sure was good looking though.

3. I like soft cooked eggs with salt. I haven't perfected the art of cooking a soft boiled egg with a perfectly cut top but I'm working on it.

4. I like to pretend that I'm a supercool spy when I drive my car on the freeway. There is something about driving a car with a standard transmission that brings out my inner James Bond, well, Tracy Bond. (Watch "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and you'll know what I mean.)

(I realize that this picture isn't from the movie but she looks cooler here than the picture I found.)

5. I have some fashion pet peeves: Cut off sleeveless shirts on most guys (see above), sweat pants with elasticized ankles, ankle bracelets, mullets (unless you're a member of Duran Duran in the 80's or David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust), high waisted pants with elastic waists, and well, I guess that's about it.

BONUS

6. I have a long tongue. Seriously. One of my mission companions asked if she could paint my face like Gene Simmons. It's probably why I get tongue tied and had issues speaking French.

Now you know more about me.

I feel like I'm in an abusive relationship

In my almost twenty-five years on earth I have found myself confused by women who are in abusive relationships and don't break the cycle. Why do those stupid girls keep going back to someone who hurts them so much. Generally my thoughts run the course of the following: "How dumb do you have to be?!?" or just, "idiot!" Most of these thoughts stemmed from lack of personal experience in an abusive relationship (or any relationship for that matter.)

All of that changed last night when I gave in to some manicotti, stuffed full of cheese.

It wasn't that much, it was only two bites. I thought it would be okay. It tasted so good and it hadn't hurt me in the past. I thought maybe things had changed. This time it would be different. Right? RIGHT???

Nope.

On the plus side I now know for sure that dairy wreaks havoc on my insides. I have no plans on going back because the discomfort was just too much last night. It sucks but I can do something about it. I'm going to go drink some soy milk now.

Officially at WAR!

I went to the doctor this week and he sort of agreed with my suspicions about being lactose intolerant. It sort of sucks because I love dairy stuff. Anyway I'm feeling better and my stomach hasn't hurt in the last twenty-four hours. I tried some ginger herbal tea and it seemed to work. Hopefully I just needed to get whatever it was out of my system and I'll start feeling better and more like myself.

Has anyone else heard those commercials for Wendy's frosty shakes? They really bug me. Here's why:
1. They advertise the shakes as something that can make you happy, like sleeping in or day light savings. What about people who get mad stomach aches after eating dairy. I wasn't happy when I had stomache aches.
2. What the heck are "factory shakes?" They claim that their shakes are "made in front of you" not like one of those "factory shakes." I asked a co-worker and we couldn't figure it out.
3. I guess I only had two qualms.

Has anyone heard about the Lavender Festival in Mona, Utah? Apparently they have baking with lavender AND a lavender fairy. Where is Mona anyways?

GRAD SCHOOL!

It boggles my mind when I think about things that have happened since I returned from my mission two years ago. I am going to graduate from Weber State University (FINALLY!) in December and then, I'll move to Logan to start graduate work at Utah State University. The technicalities haven't been worked out yet but I have a good start on it. I have an appointment to take the Millers Analogy Test next month and I started filling out my grad school application. After several e-mails and a few phone calls it sounds like it's going to work out. I wasn't planning on this when I got home from my mission. Heck, I wasn't even considering Logan last year. What happened? Get comfortable and I'll tell you.

Two years ago I thought I had a pretty good handle on my college career, I would take two years of french classes while finishing up my theatre and art classes. After that I might apply to BYU's grad program even though it meant waiting around for a year because they only admit grad students ever two years. Honestly I thought I would have gotten married or at least started dating seriously by the time graduation rolled around. It seemed like the natural course of things. After graduation I thought I would work for a while, get married (if it hadn't happened yet) and then be a full time Mom. That was sort of what I thought would happen when I finished up my mission.

There were some wrenches thrown into the cogs, mostly thrown by the sabbatical loving art department. You'd think that a university would find other people to teach classes so their students can graduate. Anyhoo. Last semester I participated in the Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival in Los Angeles. This was the regional festival for students in the western states who "do theatre." I designed "!Bocon!" last spring and I had the opportunity to take my designs from that show to the festival to be critiqued. While there I met Shawn Fisher who is over graduate studies at Utah State University and I expressed an interest in pursuing a MFA at USU. Several e-mails and phone calls later and I'm where I am today. (See first paragraph.) It's not where I was planning but I think it will be even better than I had expected.

In other news, I think dairy is my new frenemy. For the most part of this month I have had pretty gnarly stomach aches, pretty different than other stomach aches. I'd had some before but they were stress related and they felt different anyway. I paid attention to the food I was eating and I made a connection between the stomach aches and dairy products, especially yogurt and cheese. This really sucks because I really like yogurt and cheese and ice cream. I guess weekly visits to our new Yogurt Stop are out of the question if I want to stay stomach ache free. At least I already like soy milk.